Claire specialises in intellectual property with a particular emphasis on patent litigation in the life sciences sector. Claire has a Master’s degree in Chemistry, which gives her a valuable understanding of the technical issues that can underlie intellectual property matters and enables her to provide clear intelligible advice. Claire has extensive experience of assisting high profile clients in revocation and infringement proceedings before the English High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. She has also assisted clients in connection with other contentious IP matters, including the UK’s first damages enquiry following a cross-undertaking given on an interim injunction and the first ever successful claim by employee inventors under the Patents Act 1977.

Claire also has widespread experience of working on lifecycle management projects for one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, which requires the co-ordination and management of parallel proceedings in multiple jurisdictions within Europe and elsewhere in the world.

Some of Claire’s work highlights include:

• DSM v Mara Renewables & Algal Omega 3 – advising in connection with litigation before the English Patents Court concerning omega-3 single cell oils, and their production.
• Novartis v Teva & Ors – patent litigation before the High Court and Court of Appeal concerning patent for blockbuster fingolimod product (Gilenya®), including application for interim injunctive relief pre-patent grant and issues relating to the availability of Arrow declarations for use in foreign proceedings.
• Regeneron & Teva v Rinat– revocation proceedings in the UK (and the EPO) in respect of patents for anti-NGF antibodies for the treatment of osteoarthritis and related symptoms. Coordinating with proceedings in Germany and at the EPO.
• Samsung Bioepis & Biogen Idec v Fresenius – defence and enforcement of patents relating to adalimumab formulations. Coordinating the defence and enforcement of equivalent rights in countries across Europe, Australia and Canada
• Les Laboratoires Servier v Apotex – patent infringement and revocation proceedings concerning Servier’s ACE inhibitor Perindopril. Advising in connection with the subsequent damages enquiry brought under a cross-undertaking before the High Court, Court of Appeal and ultimately the Supreme Court.
• Sandvik v Kennametal – patent infringement and revocation proceeding before the High Court concerning oxide coated cutting tools.
• Actavis v Novartis – defence of patent revocation proceedings in the UK, and coordination of parallel proceedings across Europe, in respect of a formulation patent for a cholesterol-reducing agent.
• AstraZeneca v Krka– assisting in connection with a damages enquiry following a preliminary injunction and patent infringement proceedings.
• Kelly v GE Healthcare – claim brought for employee compensation under the Patents Act 1977.

Claire has also spent time on secondment to the UK legal department of a global healthcare IT company, working on non-contentious IP/IT, regulatory and commercial matters.

In addition, Claire has represented clients in the EPO and contributes regularly to the monthly EPO reports which Bristows produces for the CIPA Journal. Claire also co-ordinates a team of writers at Bristows for the EPLAW patent blog and is a member of AIPPI.